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RIA Novosti
According to another survey in the framework of the project “Sputnik.Opinion”, commissioned by the Agency and radio Sputnik one of the biggest international research firms engaged in public opinion polls, TNS Global on the eve of the third anniversary of the referendum in the Crimea, more than a third of Germans (36%) and Italians (34%) consider Crimea a part of Russia. Also think about a quarter of Britons (26%) and Americans (23%) and one fifth of the respondents of the French.
In General, the number of respondents convinced of the ownership of the Crimea to Russia, about equal to the number of the opposite opinion, and only in France, more than those who do not consider the Peninsula as Russian territory.
Most of Crimea called Russian Germans, mainly young people, in France, on the contrary, this opinion is shared mostly by the older generation – said almost a third of respondents aged over 55 years. With more than half of Americans and almost half of the French and British found it difficult to determine the identity of the Crimea.
The survey was conducted from 16 to 22 February. It was attended 5138 respondents from France, Germany, Italy, UK and USA. Sample representerait population by sex, age, and geography. The maximum sampling error for the data in the whole country is +/- 3.1 percent at a confidence level of 95%.
Director General of the Institute of regional problems, candidate of political Sciences Dmitry Zhuravlev on radio Sputnik noted that ordinary people in the West relevant to the question of the Crimea is really changing.
“There is a very important clarification – we are talking about people, not the elites. The population relevant to the problem of Crimea is changing. People are starting to get used to the fact that Crimea is Russian. In fact, before the negative attitude of the population was not too common. Now people just in a greater degree began to understand that Crimea is Russian, although “don’t know” until now still prevails. This is partly the result of time, partly of insight,” said Dmitry Zhuravlev.
In his opinion, in Europe are learning more about Russia.
“To some extent fabulous ideas about Russia, Ukraine and Crimea have moved to more realistic, which is based on the fact that the Crimea has been Russian and remains Russian. Those who knew the Soviet Union, you know, that Crimea is, in fact, was never Ukrainian, even when he was in the Ukraine. But a large part of Europe does not know, because in Europe in General don’t know much about Russia. But as the situation evolves, they learn about Russia, more and more, although full understanding is still far”, – believes the analyst.
This anti-Russian propaganda in this case plays against Western elites, says Dmitry Zhuravlev.
“Propaganda is associated with the sanctions. If it was pure propaganda, maybe it would have worked. But now, like Pavlov’s dogs, produced a reflex. To stories about the “Ukrainian” Crimea is annexed sanctions that hit the population of Europe. A simple man may not even know where Crimea is on the map, but he knows that after a lot of talk about the “Ukrainian” Crimea, apples it stopped buying. The head was clearly connected with one another. So the propaganda effect, but since it is combined with the deterioration of the situation of Europeans affected by it, rather less than a plus,” concluded the analyst.